Cara Heads-Lane, Millennium Hall of Fame

The race for gold at Sydney 2000 has started around the world, and

ushering in a new Olympic sport for women could be Newport Harbor High

product Cara Heads-Lane (Class of ‘95), currently the No. 2 weightlifter

on the American team in the 75-kilogram class.

Now living in Savannah, Ga., Heads-Lane returned last week from the

American Open Weightlifting Championships in Tacoma, Wash., where she won

her weight class and broke a national record in the clean and jerk (125

kilos).

Heads-Lane, whose personal record in the snatch is 102.5 kilos,

accomplished at the recent World Championships in Greece, is focused on

this summer’s Olympic Games in Australia.

“If we had to go (to the Olympics) tomorrow, I’d be on the team,” said

Heads-Lane, whose next big event, the U.S. Senior Nationals, is three

months away.

Following an outstanding track and field career at Newport Harbor,

Heads-Lane, greatly influenced in weightlifting and the throwing events

by former Sailor weights and conditioning coach Tony Ciarelli, competed

at Cal after high school, but left after three semesters to pursue dreams

in weightlifting.

An elite age-group lifter in high school, Heads-Lane moved to Savannah

in January 1997 to train with Team Savannah for that summer’s Junior

World Championships. Seven of the top 10 female lifters in the country

train with Team Savannah under Coach Michael Cohen, including 16-year-old

phenom Cheryl Hayworth, who has been featured on “The Tonight Show” with

Jay Leno, the USA Today and various television news magazine shows.

Once in Savannah, Heads-Lane met her husband, John, and has been based

there since.

“The doors kept opening, and opportunities kept arising,” said

Heads-Lane, who, upon hearing that women’s weightlifting would be

declared in competition at the Sydney Games, saw an enormous chance to

represent her country in the third millennium’s first Olympiad.

Heads-Lane, who was married May 2, 1999, hopes to increase her totals

in the snatch and clean and jerk by 2 1/2 kilos each at the U.S. Senior

Nationals in March, an Olympic qualifying event. She’s hoping to “pull

away from the pack to secure a position for myself on the Olympic team,”

she said.

Heads-Lane, 5-foot-3 and between 160 and 165 pounds, said she’ll

probably retire if she makes the 2000 Games and start a family. “Right

now, all’s going well, and I have faith that (making the Olympic team)

will come about, and that I’ll do well,” she said.

Heads-Lane, a former Newport Harbor homecoming queen, followed in the

footsteps of her sister, Gina, who’s older by one year and started

weightlifting in high school under Ciarelli to build strength for

basketball and the shot put and discus.

Gina, one of the school’s most decorated female athletes in history,

went to Stanford to throw the weights (hammer, discus and shot put) and

is now a school teacher in Northern California.

Cara, also a former basketball player but less heralded than her

sister because of knee injuries, was part of a stellar athletic class at

Newport Harbor that included Misty May, Melissa Schutz, Tina Bowman and

Mandy Clayton.

As a senior, Heads-Lane enjoyed a sensational year in the discus, her

best event, and shot put.

In a postseason that saw her capture the Sea View League discus title,

finish second at the CIF Southern Section Division II finals and third at

the prestigious Masters Meet, Heads-Lane threw a career-best 149 feet

five inches in a qualifying effort at the state preliminaries -- a school

record by more than three feet and the fifth-best heave in Orange County

history.

After breaking the Newport Harbor record previously set by her sister

in 1994, Heads-Lane went on to place fifth at the state meet, one of her

favorite prep highlights.

In 1993-94, Heads-Lane didn’t start, but played on Coach Shannon

Jakosky’s girls basketball team that reached the CIF III-AA and Southern

California Division III Regional finals at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

That squad also went 24-8 and set a school record for victories in a

season.

“I didn’t get to play that much, but it was exciting to get to a high

level and play (at the Pond),” Heads-Lane said. “It was just fun.”

With the 2000 Olympic Games in her sight, today’s honoree in the Daily

Pilot Sports Hall of Fame (celebrating the millennium) is hoping to reach

another level.

“I have to admit,” she said, “it’s very exciting and I’m enjoying

every bit of it.”

Cara Heads-Lane, whose parents are Larry and Cathy, has two

stepchildren through her recent marriage.